The Dead Never Come Back
by InkstainedHands1177
Summary: It had been one year. Anniversaries were suppose to be happy memories. The agony washed over her in waves again and again and again. She deserved this. This pain. The heartbreak.


**This is slightly AU but who cares! = ) I felt pulled to write something like this. Sorry for the emotion. If this makes you feel sad then I did a good job at writing it. I don't know if Valkyrie is OOC or not. This is my first Skullduggery fanfic. **

DEREK LANDY OWNS THE SKULLDUGGERY PLEASANT BOOKS.

**Please let me know if you liked it. **

**Ink…**

_Episcopal Church, Haggard, Ireland_

Stephanie Edgley stood in front of three graves. Three very important graves. It was an anniversary.

_Anniversaries are suppose to be good memories. _She bit her lip. Looking at the sky, she mentally cursed fate. It was bright blue, not a cloud in the sky. Birds were even singing. Her mocking, broken laughter rang out in the quiet churchyard.

Graveyard.

She knelt in front of the grave with a small tombstone with a stone teddy bear sitting next it. It said:

_Alice Edgley_

_August 14, 2011 to July 26, 2014_

_Light, Joy, and Little Sister_

She had been numb to the deaths of her family for a year. So much had happened. So many had died. By her hand. By others. It didn't matter. They were dead. That's what mattered.

Dead.

Dead don't come back.

Unless the dead are Skulduggery.

Stephanie stared at the first grave in the row of three. It had a stone penguin placed next to it.

_Desmond Edgley_

_January 26, 1973 to July 26, 2014_

_Good Husband and Wonderful Father_

The second stone had an angel beside it.

_Melissa Edgley_

_March 19, 1975 to July 26, 2014_

_Wife, Mother, Friend_

Stephanie felt her heart clench. She felt the numbness start to crack. Faint traces of pain were forming in her core. Her soul was straining, breaking bit by bit. The pressure building until it started to rise upward from her gut to her chest. She tried to hold it down, but nothing could stop it. She couldn't keep it suppressed any longer.

The pressure rose from her chest to her throat. She opened her mouth to breath, but a scream came out instead. An agonized scream filled with pain, misery, self-hatred, and utter realization ripped out of her like shards of hot glass.

She clenched her fists into the grass and took a breath. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry." She remember her mother teasing her father. Her little sister cooing at her with a big toothless smile on her cherubic face. Her father defending himself with childish retorts.

This didn't help her grief. Tears, silent and cold, were streaming down her face like lonely souls looking for a place to rest. She lifted her head up and stared at the bright blue sky. Her mouth opened.

No sound came out.

Her eyes were filled with desolation. The anguish, the trauma that she had experienced was finally breaking the numbness. It felt like the veil inside her hadn't just been torn to shreds but set fire to. Her throat ached.

She couldn't do this. She couldn't. She couldn't stay alive while the innocent perished.

A pair of footsteps could be heard, but she didn't register the sound. Her gut clenched, and she screamed. She couldn't understand what the person was saying. She heard the words, but they didn't make sense.

She lost control.

Her necromancy magic seeped into the ground, turning the grass around her into a perfect circle of death. The graves had not been touched. She howled despair and wretchedness at the sky.

A hand was on her shoulder. It was gloved.

Why was that important to her?

She couldn't remember.

She lost the train of thought. A wave of sorrow overcame her again and again and again. It was suffocating. Encompassing.

Deserved.

She did this. She deserved the pain. The heartbreak.

Her heart wasn't broken. She never had a heart to begin with. She was dead. Dead.

The dead never came back.

Unless the dead are Skulduggery. She looked up and saw his skull. Valkyrie got up from the ground. They walked back to his car. His arm was holding her close. Holding her up. Supporting her.

The dead were gone. They never come back.

Except Skulduggery.

He was always there.

**So, did I do okay? I apologize for any differences from what actually happened in the book. **

**Hope you enjoyed it. Auto correct changed Skulduggery's name two 'L'. Thank you, Heslen, for pointing that out. = ) I've edited it now.**

**Ink…**


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